Range Report of a Sort

One of my brothers in law called last week.  He has kids in Little League Baseball and  frequently finds himself driving through unfamiliar cities with the whole family going to the games and then playoffs.  It goes on for  a good part of the year.   He was never particularly a gunny sort but had decided it would be wise to have something in the car besides baseball bats in case trouble found them while on the road.  

He had just sent of the paperwork for his CWP and had been doing his homework on the internet.  He had narrowed his choices down to a Glock 19 or a Springfield XD 9mm and wanted to know what I thought of them.   I told him that either would be an excellent choice.  We met at Gander Mtn. the next morning and he picked the Springfield.

Not having his carry permit yet, he had the three day wait.  With his schedule and distance from the store, that meant a six day wait so it was Friday evening before he picked it up.  We headed to the Hernando Sportsmans Club Saturday Morning to see how the new gun met his expectations.

This particular brother in law hasn't done much shooting.  The XD is actually his first gun.    His first shot was high and left.  His second shot was dead center.  Most of his following shots were pretty dang close to the second one.   The targets were pretty close so its not like he was ringing steel at a hundred yards with it but he shot as well or better than I did with my .45 or my .40.  

Eventually, I was given a turn behind the wheel and I liked the thing.   I've barely evolved enough to accept that guns without cylinders are worth having but I liked the thing.  A 1911 is about as modern as I get except in special cases like something smaller for concealment but I really liked the XD.  It shot well.  The top-mounted extractor made a nice loaded chamber indicator.   The ergonomics were perfect and even with ten rounds in the magazine it didn't seem to weigh much at all. (He didn't know what the loading gizmo was and left it at home so it was difficult to get more than ten in the magazines) .   I honestly caught myself thinking "well, John Moses Browning (PBUH) couldn't think of everything."  I did eventually come to my senses and decide that he would have designed the XD if the polymers had existed back in his day.

Bro-in-law talked about maybe getting something smaller for actual concealed carry and possibly becoming hooked on guns.  The younger of his two sons remarked that he could have stayed at the range shooting all day.  We talked guns and ammo all the way back to his house.  He raved about the gun to his wife.  She will go the next time.  I wound up with 100 shiny new 9mm empties to reload for them.  Even my sucky shooting worked out well because it made them feel that much better about their gun.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday Morning.